Heartbreak Town is the debut album of American country music artist Steve Azar

Steve Azar

Stephen Thomas "Steve" Azar is an American country music artist. Azar was signed to River North Nashville in 1995, and he released his debut album on February 27, 1996. After leaving River North, Azar took time away from his music...

. Released on River North Records in 1996, it features the singles "Someday" and "I Never Stopped Loving You", which peaked at #51 and #50, respectively, on the Billboard

Billboard (magazine)

Billboard is a weekly American magazine devoted to the music industry, and is one of the oldest trade magazines in the world. It maintains several internationally recognized music charts that track the most popular songs and albums in various categories on a weekly basis...

Hot Country Singles & Tracks (now Hot Country Songs

Hot Country Songs

Hot Country Songs is a chart published weekly by Billboard magazine in the United States.This 60-position chart lists the most popular country music songs, calculated weekly mostly by airplay and occasionally commercial sales...

) charts that year. Azar did not release another album until Waitin' on Joe

Waitin' on Joe

Waitin' on Joe is the title of a studio album by country music artist Steve Azar. It was released in 2002 on Mercury Nashville Records as the second album of his career, six years after his debut album Heartbreak Town. Waitin' on Joe features the singles "I Don't Have to be Me " and "Waitin' on Joe"...

six years later. The track "I Go Crazy" is a cover of Paul Davis

Paul Davis (singer)

Paul Lavon Davis was an American singer and songwriter, best known for his radio hits and solo career which started worldwide in 1970. His career encompassed soul, country and pop music...

' hit single from 1978.

Country Standard Time

Country Standard Time

Country Standard Time is a website dedicated to country music and related genres such as Bluegrass and Rockabilly. It provides news and musical reviews pertaining to the genre. It was established in 1992 by Jeffrey B. Remz as a print magazine, which was first published only in New England but went...

 critic Larry Stephens gave a mostly-negative review, saying that outside "Thunderbird" and "As Long as Harley Gets to Play," the album's songs were too similar to each other in sound and "not strong enough to carry [their] weight on radio."

Track listing

1. "I Never Stopped Lovin' You" (Steve Azar, Jason Blume) – 4:10
2. "Nights Like This" (Azar, Bob Regan) – 3:32
3. "What Are We Waitin' For" (Azar, Roger Murrah
   Roger Murrah
   Roger Murrah is a songwriter and music publisher who has written hits for artists including Waylon Jennings, Alan Jackson, Al Jarreau, and Alabama....
   
   , A. J. Masters) – 2:43
4. "Someday" (Azar, Masters, Regan) – 3:06
5. "Thunderbird" (Azar, Masters, Tommy Rocco) – 4:54
6. "As Long as Harley Gets to Play" (Azar, Masters, Murrah) – 3:50
7. "Dreams of a Dancer" (Azar, Masters, Regan) – 3:11
8. "Heartbreak Town" (Azar, Murrah, Regan) – 3:08
9. "I Go Crazy
   I Go Crazy (Paul Davis song)
   "I Go Crazy" is the title of a single released in 1977 by American singer-songwriter Paul Davis. It was the first single he released from his 1977 album Singer of Songs: Teller of Tales, and his second-highest peaking pop hit, peaking at #7 on the Billboard chart in 1978...
   
   " (Paul Davis
   Paul Davis (singer)
   Paul Lavon Davis was an American singer and songwriter, best known for his radio hits and solo career which started worldwide in 1970. His career encompassed soul, country and pop music...
   
   ) – 3:51
10. "Caught Between the Rock and the Roll" (Azar, Masters, Don Goodman) – 4:15
11. "Love Had No Right" (Azar, Masters, Tony Marty) – 3:20
12. "You Don't Even Have to Try" (Azar, Masters, Murrah) – 3:03

Personnel

As listed in liner notes.

• Steve Azar – vocals, acoustic guitar
  Acoustic guitar
  An acoustic guitar is a guitar that uses only an acoustic sound board. The air in this cavity resonates with the vibrational modes of the string and at low frequencies, which depend on the size of the box, the chamber acts like a Helmholtz resonator, increasing or decreasing the volume of the sound...
  
  
• Eddie Bayers
  Eddie Bayers
  Eddie Bayers is an American session drummer who has played on 150 gold and platinum albums. He received the Academy of Country Music 'Drummer of the Year Award' for eight straight years, and has three times won the Nashville Music Awards 'Drummer of the Year'...
  
   – drums
  Drum kit
  A drum kit is a collection of drums, cymbals and often other percussion instruments, such as cowbells, wood blocks, triangles, chimes, or tambourines, arranged for convenient playing by a single person ....
  
  
• Michael Black – background vocals
• Kathy Burdick – background vocals
• Glen Duncan – guitar
• Larry Franklin – fiddle
  Fiddle
  The term fiddle may refer to any bowed string musical instrument, most often the violin. It is also a colloquial term for the instrument used by players in all genres, including classical music...
  
  
• Sonny Garrish – pedal steel guitar
  Pedal steel guitar
  The pedal steel guitar is a type of electric guitar that uses a metal bar to "fret" or shorten the length of the strings, rather than fingers on strings as with a conventional guitar. Unlike other types of steel guitar, it also uses pedals and knee levers to affect the pitch, hence the name "pedal"...
  
  
• Greg Leisz
  Greg Leisz
  Greg Leisz is an American multi-instrumentalist, playing lap and pedal steel guitars, guitar, mandolin, and bass.- Biography :Leisz was influenced early on by the Byrds and Flying Burrito Brothers, especially pedal steel player "Sneaky" Pete Kleinow...
  
   – electric guitar
  Electric guitar
  An electric guitar is a guitar that uses the principle of direct electromagnetic induction to convert vibrations of its metal strings into electric audio signals. The signal generated by an electric guitar is too weak to drive a loudspeaker, so it is amplified before sending it to a loudspeaker...
  
  , lap steel guitar
  Lap steel guitar
  The lap steel guitar is a type of steel guitar, an instrument derived from and similar to the guitar. The player changes pitch by pressing a metal or glass bar against the strings instead of by pressing strings against the fingerboard....
  
  , pedal steel guitar
• Brent Mason
  Brent Mason
  Brent Mason is an American session guitarist and occasional songwriter. He is known primarily for his work in the field of country music. In addition to releasing two instrumental studio albums, he holds several credits as a songwriter...
  
   – electric guitar
• A. J. Masters – acoustic guitar, bass guitar
  Bass guitar
  The bass guitar is a stringed instrument played primarily with the fingers or thumb , or by using a pick....
  
  , background vocals
• Matthew Morse – strings
  String section
  The string section is the largest body of the standard orchestra and consists of bowed string instruments of the violin family.It normally comprises five sections: the first violins, the second violins, the violas, the cellos, and the double basses...
  
  
• Steve Nathan – piano
  Piano
  The piano is a musical instrument played by means of a keyboard. It is one of the most popular instruments in the world. Widely used in classical and jazz music for solo performances, ensemble use, chamber music and accompaniment, the piano is also very popular as an aid to composing and rehearsal...
  
  , Hammond B-3 organ
• Johnny Neal – piano
• Russ Pahl – steel guitar
• Gary Pigg – background vocals
• Bob Regan – electric guitar
• Michael Rhodes – bass guitar
• Brent Rowan – acoustic guitar, electric guitar
• John Wesley Ryles
  John Wesley Ryles
  John Wesley Ryles is an American country music artist. He made his debut in 1968 with the single "Kay", a Top Ten hit on the Billboard Hot Country Singles charts, and the title track to his debut album for Columbia Records.Ryles later recorded one album, Reconsider Me, for the Plantation label,...
  
  – background vocals
• Joe Thomas – acoustic guitar, piano
• Jonathan Yudkin – fiddle